When Lim Shing Hui of L Architects was tasked to redesign the interior of this 1,658-square-foot apartment for a newly married couple, the task at hand was to reorganize the interiors in a way that better fostered family connection. Things weren’t ideal as they were; the living and dining spaces, positioned at the center of the plan, were closed off from one another, flanked by two bedrooms on each side.

“We felt the efficiency of the layout preceded everything else,” says Lim. A default approach would have been to demolish walls to open up the plan, but Lim envisioned something else.

“We have always wondered if there was another strategy that maintained some privacy, a key element that people need within the setup of modern-day living,” says Lim. “We wanted to see if we could find a sensible balance between enclosure and openness, seclusion and integration.”

To those ends, she and her assistant, Tse Lee Shing, combined two bedrooms to create a larger primary bedroom, and opened up the kitchen to enhance spatial and visual flow between the living and dining areas. To create more moments of connection between spaces, they placed different kinds of windows in the walls between rooms.

“In that sense, no space is shut off completely,” Lim says. “The couple can choose how to use these windows according to their moods, whether he or she wants to be alone or with others. The idea of privacy turns elastic.”

Lim is more obsessed with windows than some. “To me, [they] have always been one of the most interesting architectural elements for their multiple functions,” she says. “They provide views, daylight, natural ventilation, protect from harsh weather such as rain, and are also a strong visual element for a façade appearance.”

But what if they were used indoors instead? “We realized that this aspect was not used very much within interior renovation projects and wanted to push some meaningful boundaries with it,” she adds.

Benches positioned near some of the windows create moments for interaction where meaningful conversations can take place in ad hoc ways. “These whimsical windows form an interesting backdrop for the interior,” says Lim. “Connectivity aside, they also offer new possibilities for optimizing natural ventilation.”

The positioning and type of windows specified for each space were carefully considered to correlate to the functions of the shared spaces. For example, a vertical bifold window connects a bedroom to the dining area.

“It provides a cantilevered structure over the dining space, introducing a secondary ceiling profile,” she describes. Here, a custom-built bench becomes an added informal seat to the dining area.

At a wall between the living room and another bedroom, she inserted a window higher up. “We envisioned this room to have a bunk bed in the future,” says Lim. “The window here would provide a small opening for some visual connectivity to the main spaces. Doors would not be able to provide that level of interaction.”

Meanwhile, windows between the new study, living room, and kitchen are punctured with a porous gridded pattern. The screen-like quality means the wife, who works from home, never really feels entirely isolated even if she spends long hours at her computer.

The windows are clad in dark timber veneers to make them stand out from the interior’s lighter oak finishes. Continuing the refined look are marble floors, which were in place before. “They were refinished to reduce any unnecessary reflection, working in tandem with the proposed interior palette of finishes and colors to induce a natural, calming environment,” says Lim. The smoother finishes are balanced with a bit more texture elsewhere, like in cream-colored glazed subway tiles and stone flooring with sinuous lines.

The interior windows animate the serene finishes, as do the ceilings in the living and dining rooms, which are tapered upward toward full-height exterior windows that capture views from the apartment’s position on the 21st floor.

This experiment by Lim is a novel way of making an interior adaptable and permeable. It created flexible spaces that don’t sacrifice privacy. “The use of windows made it possible to divide the rooms into separate spaces but once open, they generate a fluid sequence of freely accessible and connected rooms, making it suitable for family life, in our opinion,” says Lim. “This helps to reduce the number of walls that permanently isolate in modern urban living.”

Related Reading:

An Architect Turns His Small, Dark Apartment in Buenos Aires Into a Bright and Airy Home

A Brutalist ’60s Apartment Gets a Bright and Airy Makeover

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: L Architects / @larchitects.sg